Climbing Ledges
by Professor Sycamore
Summary: Gale finds a note, and the rest is history.


Once upon a time, in a small town in the small region of Kanto, there lived three young trainers.

These three trainers had a remarkable talent for what they did, and it became apparent from the beginning. Both were so successful and wonderful that the entirety of the region – of the _world – _began to revere them as legends that rose from humble beginnings. They were seemingly perfect. Nobody could _possibly _hate them.

But I did.

I hated them with a passion.

Granted, I've never even met them before. In fact, I had moved into their hometown, Pallet Town, years after they'd gone on their journeys. And yet, it was the clouded judgment of the other villagers, their pure obsession with that "Pallet Trio" that drove me off the wall. The residents of Pallet Town so much revered these trainers that all others paled in comparison to them. I was a mere week from beginning my own journey, but it seemed as if my departure was the equivalent of an ant being scraped off of a shoe. It seemed only my mother and my friend Darren – although I wouldn't exactly call him a _friend_ – even _knew _I was leaving in the first place.

I didn't mind, however. In only a few days, it would be my tenth birthday and I would be getting my first Pokémon from Mom, and it was going to be the greatest Pokémon ever – and I would be the greatest _trainer _ever.

As I wandered aimlessly around the perimeter of her small, buttercup-colored home, I envisioned the possible Pokémon I was going to be getting soon. Images of huge, destructive monsters appeared beside stealthy creatures; a Charizard blows swirls of fire around a Rypherior that's caused a small earthquake. Small Rattata and Caterpie are blown away, Jigglypuff cower behind rocks, and I smiled contentedly and snapped out of my daydream to check the time.

Nearly 1 o'clock. I sighed deeply and ran back into the house, predictably greeted by my mother, who was in the kitchen piling sandwiches onto a plate. She gave me a half-smile and cocked her head towards the nearby dining table, where Darren was seated and wearing his usual annoying, wacky smile.

"Welcome back, Gale," Mom said, now standing by the table and sliding the large plate onto it. "Darren's come over to eat lunch with you. Make him at home, all right?" She gave her another smile and started to walk off. "I'll be upstairs reading if you need me."

As she made her way upstairs, I settled into the farthest chair from Darren and immediately dug into my first sandwich. Peanut butter. I sighed through my nose and slouched in my chair; I was done with eating peanut butter.

Darren took a sandwich himself and grinned at me. "So, Gale? Guess what day it is?"

I stared at him flatly. It was only his birthday, the day he obsessed over since the end of his _last _birthday. "Your birthday, right?" I made my best effort to sound as unenthusiastic as possible.

Darren didn't seem to notice this, because his grin widened as he nodded rapidly. "Yup, and… guess what else?"

I raised an eyebrow at him and shrugged, picking up my juice box. Immediately, he set his sandwich on a napkin and clumsily pulled a small sphere from his back pocket. I crushed the juice box in my hand.

"You got a Pokémon?!" I shouted in exasperation. Not _this_ kid, of everyone!

"Yessir!" He attempted to spin it in his hands but it slipped to the floor. I winced and watched him pick it up then grabbed it from him.

Ignoring his protests, I turned it over in my palms. "Mother of Mew, you are lucky! Did your parents get it for you? There _is _something in it right?"

He was nodding so much his head could've fallen off. "It's an Abra. Like the yellow Pokéranger! We're gonna compete together."

I pursed my lips and squeezed the poké ball tightly. "Pretty impressive… but my Pokémon's gonna be _way_ cooler, just so you know."

He smirked and took his poké ball back. "I doubt it! You know your mom is gonna get you like, a Jigglypuff or something."

I groaned audibly and took a huge bite of peanut butter. "Don't remind me," I said with my mouth still full. The day before, my mother and I had gotten into a bit of an argument as to what Pokémon she'd be getting me, since Professor Oak refused to give any of us one of his. While I insisted on a Machop or something of the like, she wouldn't accept it. Sadly, my attempts at convincing her Arceus was obtainable were fruitless, and the next day she left me a copy of _Giggly-Wiggly Jigglypuff _on my bookshelf. I threw that book under my bed upon reading the title.

After a few minutes of silence, and our sandwiches were finished, I took a long sip of juice and turned my head towards Darren. "I still have two weeks, you know. And by then, I know I could convince my mom to get me a Machop."

Darren shrugged. "I dunno, you'll have to hurry before your mom orders the Pokémon… and you know your plans don't ever work, right?"

I narrowed my eyes at him. "Like what, huh?"

He looked up and started counting off with his fingers. "Well, there's that once time you tried to make your own slide, and the time ball incident, Feebas fishing, and when you almost broke Oak's arm trying to wrestle him for a Char-"

"Okay, got it!" I rolled my eyes and rested my head in my arms. "This sucks…"

Darren nudged my arm silently, and didn't say anything. He spoke up a while later. "Oh! That reminds me!" He slapped his hand to his forehead. "Professor Oak wanted to see you a while ago, said it was something about a missing notebook?"

"He would blame me for it," I muttered darkly, but even still I stood up and started walking out the door. "Tell my mom I went out if she asks, okay? I'll be right back."

He nodded with a smile and went back to his juice as I walked outside and into the bright summer day. The walk to Professor Oak's lab wasn't a long one, fortunately, but it was overwhelmingly hot and humid. And it smelled suspiciously of Rattata droppings, courtesy of Oak's new airheaded aides, who could barely feed a Pokémon, much less pick up after one.

I reached the Lab in no time, and – out of courtesy – knocked on the door a few times. I waited a few seconds, and there was oddly no answer. I shrugged, assuming they were busy, and opened the door gingerly. Peeking inside, I noticed all of the lights were off and, upon longer and closer inspection, saw that the room was almost in ruins.

As I walked further, I saw chairs turned over, shelves opened, drawers on the floor, and papers scattered everywhere. I noticed spots of red on the ashy tile in front of me and stopped dead in my tracks. After gawking at the sight in wide-eyed horror for a minute, I noticed a light emanating to my left. The lamp on Oak's desk, in the far corner of the room, was on and illuminating a small spot on the surface. I approached it with a pounding heart, my eyes still wide, and noticed two things upon reaching it.

Firstly, a slip of paper, seemingly ripped out of a notebook in a hurry and folded loosely. I picked it up, my curiosity getting the better of me, and narrowed my eyes to read the tiny handwriting.

'_Dear Cops,_

_We've left this letter to let you know that we, Team Rocket, have kidnapped the great Prof. Oak and his aides and are now invading all of Kanto! That's right, we're back, and there's no stopping us! If you wish to get your precious old man back, please present yourselves at one of our many bases and come with 100,000,000 poké._

_Should you have any questions, feel free to contact our one of the admin's numbers listed at the bottom._

_Have a splendid day!_

- _Admin Szell of Team Rocket'_

I scratched my head absently as I read over the letter again. Team Rocket, back? And apparently full of huge idiots, since this 'Szell' person was stupid enough to leave their numbers. I set the letter down, and immediately noticed the second thing.

A poké ball.

Right there, in the open, belonging to no one and probably containing something amazing and perfect. It was beautiful, it was wonderful, and it was _mine. _At least, it should have been. It was fate. Wasn't it?

With trembling fingers, I picked it up and looked around reflexively. No, of course no one was around… I gulped down a huge breath of air and stuffed the ball into my shorts' front pocket. I immediately realized the lump on my thigh was blatantly obvious and pulled it out, looking towards the door nervously. Someone could walk in any second…

In a sudden and rare burst of genius, I untied my dark brown hair, put the poké ball to the back of my head, and wrapped it around the shrunken ball so it formed a tight bun, and secured it with my orange hair band again. I patted my own head, congratulating myself, and started to walk back outside when I realized my situation.

The countless crime shows I'd stayed up all night watching flooded up my mind. My fingerprints were probably on the ransom note, I could've faked it. I was walking out of a crime scene with a stolen Pokémon hidden in my hair. Should I take the note? Get rid of the evidence and feign ignorance? Or…

I could save the professor myself.

I suddenly remembered my goal. I wanted to be more famous than those three trainers ever were. I wanted people to be proud of me, not see me as some little kid they could beat around whenever they wanted. I wanted to be the Champion of the Kanto region. I wanted to be the greatest trainer here.

And until that moment, it never seemed so close. This was the perfect opportunity. At least, I was naïve enough to believe that. But I was a kid, what more was I going to think?

I took the note.

I took one more look around the room.

I took my butt right out the door.

By the time I got back home, the note was crinkled and worn from my sweaty fingers, and my bun was coming undone. I let out a breath of relief when I saw that Darren was gone, and immediately went upstairs to my room. I listened for my mom's footsteps as I stuffed what I could into my old, tiny duffle bag. A few wrinkled shirts, evenly wrinklier pants, a Bidoof-printed hat I won at a trip to an amusement park in Unova, and my warmest coat. I put in some miscellaneous things and my stash of Jigglybubble chewing gum to finish it off, and zipped everything shut with little difficulty. Finally, I undid my bun and slipped the poké ball into the side pocket of the bag and patted it a few times.

Upon slinging the bag onto my shoulder, my mother walked in. I dropped my bag in shock as I stared at her with wide eyes. She looked every bit as surprised. Gingerly, I stepped back a few paces and kicked the bag under my bed, accidentally stubbing my toe in the process.

"Uh, what's up, Mom?" I gave her a painful smile and swallowed hard. My eyes watered.

She cocked an eyebrow at me. "Is something wrong? What was that you just dropped?"

I pursed my lips to think for half a second before cracking a grin. "Oh, I was packing my things early! I'm just really excited to get going, ya' know?"

I noticed my mom's head dropped slightly at this. "Right. About that… Gale, we need to talk about something."

It was my turn to raise an eyebrow at her. I sat on the bed, relieved that she wasn't pressing me, and stared at her. She was looking at the lamp on my bed with a frown. I glanced at it, too.

"Uh, is something wrong with it?"

My mother looked back at me and blinked. "Huh?"

"My lamp?"

She shook her head and joined me, sitting beside me and putting a hand on my lap. "Your Pokémon," she began, and shook her head. "It... well, it isn't exactly coming anytime soon."

My eyes widened, and I tried my best to look hurt. It wasn't all too hard. "What? Why?"

She bit her bottom lip for a few seconds, no looking at me. "The breeder I was going to get it from... well, he was robbed a few days ago, and the Jigglypuff I ordered was taken."

_'Thank Arceus!'_

"That's... hm. Too bad." I sighed silently and stood up. "I get it, though. I can wait a bit longer."

My mom finally looked up at me with hopeful blue eyes. "Really? I'm glad to hear that, dear! Because the Happiny I ordered should be here within the end of the year! I know you were holding out for something tougher, but…" At that, her eyes dimmed and she looked worriedly at me, biting her lip again. "But, you don't mind, right...?"

I winced, but nodded, thinking of the Pokémon sitting in my own duffel bag. Not like I needed it anyways. She gave me a small smile and stood up to ruffle my hair. I didn't complain for her sake.

Without saying anything else, she made her way out of my room and I got to the floor. Once the door was shut, I pulled my worn duffel bag from under my bed and slung it onto my shoulder again.

I sighed deeply and looked around my room, not feeling much of anything. But as I caught more glimpses of the things I'd seen on a daily basis, a pit started to grow in my stomach. I felt sick. I wasn't ready to leave yet. I considered waiting a few days, making a plan, _something _to keep me safe at home for as long as possible.

But I had no time.

I needed to go _right at that moment. _Someone could walk into Oak's Lab at any second and I would immediately be under fire. I shut my eyes, took in a huge breath, and practically flew to my door. I opened it up as wide as it could go and hesitated for just second - I took a ginger step forward. Down the hall, my mom's door was shut and I could hear the television set blaring. One last step and I was completely out of the room, and then I bolted down the stairs. At the front door, I heard the sound of a door opening and panicked.

Is that you, Hun?" My mom's voice called from afar. "You know I don't like you running down the stairs like that!"

I didn't hesitate. "Sorry, Mom. I'm just gonna head outside to visit Darren." I paused. "... Is that okay with you?"

My mother didn't respond for a while, looking at me with a furrowed broww. She must've heard my voice tremble. My chest felt like it was about to cave in when she finally responded. "All right. You have fun." Her door promptly slammed shut. I cringed.

I would've felt better, but I didn't. I clumsily unlocked and opened up the door, and stepped out into the midday sun once again. As I shut the door, I looked around and noticed the eerie lack of people wandering around, especially on a day like this. Ignoring this, I walked forward around my house, now heading straight for Oak's lab, and - just past it - the route to the town just north of here. Viridian City. I paused along the way to pull out the poké ball - _my _poké ball - and gave it a tight squeeze. I felt a bit better.

After what I could confidently call the longest walk of my life, I reached the sign that pointed to Route 1. I looked only forward as I marched away from the sign - and Pallet Town.

When I was a relatively safe distance from the town, I gained the courage to look at my surroundings. To my disappointment - and slight relief - it wasn't much. Tall grass and trees scattered everywhere, and that was basically it. I looked back towards the town, and my eyes widened. I had just unknowingly walked through a long patch of tall grass.

That was just what nerves did to you, I guess.

With a shrug, I walked along the dirt path, avoiding the patches of tall grass that often appeared. When I finally reached an impassable, huge patch of grass, I looked down at my poké ball and grinned. Now was most definitely the perfect time to meet my new Pokémon.

My heart was pounding again, but in a good way. I gave the ball one last squeeze before throwing it onto the ground, just as I'd seen trainers do on television. I watched in anticipation as the poké ball rolled across the dirt and finally stopped, face down.

There was no bright light, no fanfare, nothing.

Nothing happened.

The poké ball was completely empty.

* * *

><p><strong>I was drawing some art of Gale last week and thought of this story, and how much I missed writing it. I thought about whether I had a version backed up somewhere and - after A LOT of searching - here it is. I revised a lot of details and all that, and here is the somewhat presentable second version of the story. I'll update every other weekend. :) <strong>

**Thanks for reading! **


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